After half a year of comings and goings, of accelerations and setbacks and parallel conversations, Real Zaragoza has finally entered into a few absolutely defining days for the change of ownership. As AS has been counting, two investor groups are finalizing their entry into the first sports corporation in Aragon, a Mexican group, whose identity is unknown, who maintains a constant dialogue with the counselor Fernando de Yarza López-Madrazo, and a multinational investment group, with a US parent, whose name has not been disclosed either for confidentiality reasons and who is negotiating directly with the Alierta family, owner of 50.56% of the capital stock, and, therefore, decisive in deciding the operation. Two weeks ago, the option of Spain Football Capital It seemed the most advanced, but nothing is final at the moment, far from it.
The purchase offer of Spain Football Capital, always according to a spokesman for Real Zaragoza itself, contemplates the immediate payment of the slightly more than six million euros of the capital stock represented by the Alierta (50.56), Yarza (13.46%), Iribarren (13.465) and Forcén (13.46%) families, in total the 90.94% of the shares of the sports corporation, in addition to another 3.5 million to César Alierta himself for a participatory credit, as this newspaper revealed on the 15th, and another ten million to meet the most urgent payment obligations of the corporation, such as deadlines with the Tax agency and also of different bank loans. And then, of course, there is the assumption of the guarantees signed by the Alierta employers – it has contributed, either directly or by guaranteeing through the capitalization of loans, 17 of the 22 million euros assumed in 2014 by the Zaragoza Foundation 2032-, Yarza, Iribarren and Forcen. In total, almost 20 million in a first shock investment to be able to undertake with minimal guarantees regarding the salary limit set by LaLiga for the 2021-22 season.
This Mexican group also contemplates, according to the same source, invest another 30 million euros in the next three years.
The details of the economic proposal of the US group, with great international experience in sports management, have not transpired, butor the mayor of Zaragoza himself, Jorge Azcón, is perfectly aware of his parallel intention to remodel and exploit the municipal-owned La Romareda stadium.
Real Zaragoza SAD lives days of uncertainty and changes due to its serious economic situation -Still with 71 million of net debt- and the completion, due to exhaustion and unsuccessful solutions, of the project of salvation on the bell that the patrons of the Zaragoza 2032 Foundation undertook in July 2014. Seven years later, and with all the planning in the air for the next season, we are closing a cycle and the change of ownership is a matter of days, at the most of a week. Beyond that, a process that has Zaragocism in suspense will not be extended.